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Saturday, December 23, 2006

Ind. Courts - 156-year-old Orange County Courthouse to get elevator

The Bedford Times-Mail reports:

PAOLI — Getting around inside the Orange County Courthouse will get easier now that funding is coming for an elevator in the 156-year-old building.

It’s a move Orange Circuit Court Judge Larry Blanton said needs to happen. He discussed the matter during a meeting of the Orange County Commissioners and the Orange County Council earlier this year. He reiterated his message this week.

“The grant will help us meet the federal law and federal rules that would provide access for handicapped persons under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act),” Blanton said.

He warned county leaders last summer, “You are one handicapped person away from a lawsuit closing the whole thing down.”

Orange County has been awarded a $525,000 Community Focus Fund grant for the project through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.

The application required the county to come up with a $145,000 match.

This brings to mind a dispute I wrote about in a September 2005 Res Gestae article, involving the Vigo County Courthouse and a dispute between the judges and the county commissioners over who would run the elevator. Here are some quotes:
More than a century ago a similar dispute about the supervision of courthouse personnel took place between the board of county commissioners and the courts in Vigo County, and made its way to the Indiana Supreme Court. The new-fangled device at issue in 1893 was not the Internet, but the elevator.

The Vigo County courthouse, “three stories high above the basement,” was built with stairways at each end and an elevator in the center. The county officers and board of county commissioners were located on the first floor, the courts on the second floor, and the grand jury and other offices on the third floor.

The commissioners had operated the elevator since the courthouse was opened for use in April of 1887, but not “to suit the convenience or necessities of the circuit and superior courts.” The elevator was often shut down before the courts adjourned. Frequently “persons attending court were compelled to use the stairways, while the records had to be carried up.”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 23, 2006 10:48 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts